6/26 | Vision and Strength of the Korean Economy - Yong-Ho Baek
4/24 | Collecting and Theorizing Korea in Late 19th Century American Anthropology - Robert Oppenheim
4/23 | Imagination of a Nomad - Insook Kim
4/18 | The Cultural and Gender Politics of Coffee in Contemporary South Korea - Jee-Eun Song
4/16 | Picturing Innocence: Locating the Child in Korea, 1920-1934 - Dafna Zur
4/12 | Censorial Dilemmas and Advertising Truths in South Korea of the ‘00s - Olga Fedorenko
4/12 | Samsung vs Apple: Can a fast follower overtake a market leader? - Tony Michell
4/9 | China’s Ancient History Expansionism and Korea’s Response - Chang-hee Nam
4/2 | Women for Women: Gender Gap and the 2012 Presidential Election of Korea - Jiyoon Kim
3/6 | Hanji Unfurled: One Journey into Korean Papermaking - Aimee Lee
2/27 | China’s Rise and the Future of the Korean Peninsula - Chung-in Moon
2/19 | Songs in the Lives of Three Korean Survivors of the Japanese 'Comfort Women' - Josh Pilzer
2/15 | Seeking Asylum, Finding God: Religion and Moral Economy of Migrants’ Illegality - Jae-Eun Kim
2/6 | Wither in Hong Sangsoo (Talk) / Weather in Hong Sangsoo (Film Screening) - Kyung Hyun Kim
1/31 | Proxies, Rivals, & Origins of the Korean War - Sheila Miyoshi Jager / Allan Millett / Michael Devine
Friday, July 26 (4:00 p.m.)
Vision and Strength of the Korean Economy
Yong-Ho Baek (Ewha Women's University)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
특강 제목: 한국경제의 비전과 힘
특강 요약: 이명박 정부에서의 정책의 방향과 그에 따른 명과 암을 말한다.나아가 한국사회가 풀어야 할 숙제를 국정경험에 비추어 제시한다.
주요 이력 및 경력사항: 뉴욕주립대학교 경제학박사, 여의도연구소 부소장, 서울시정개발연구원 원장, 공정거래위원장, 국세청장, 대통령실 정책실장, 대통령 정책특별보좌관, 현, 이화여대 정책과학대학원 교수, 상훈: 제1회 한국정책대상, 청조근정훈장
Note: This talk was given in Korean.
Wednesday, April 24 (4:00 p.m.)
Collecting and Theorizing Korea in Late 19th Century American Anthropology
Robert Oppenheim (Univ. of Texas, Austin)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: Korea as a research focus is commonly considered peripheral to the development of the American discipline of anthropology in late 19th century. In some quantitative sense, this is undoubtedly the case—far more research effort, indeed the preponderance of (proto-) anthropological work in the United States before 1900, was directed at Native American populations. Nonetheless, both this presentation and the larger project of which it is a part (on American anthropology of Korea before 1945) argue for Korea’s significance to the formation of the discipline and as a vantage point through which important institutional and theoretical dynamics of anthropology in this period are revealed. These dynamics include, for example, the entanglement of anthropology with multiple modalities of political expansion, the interplay of forces and paradigms in the creation of museum and exhibition displays, and the role of area within universalist evolutionary theory. In more concrete terms, the story of this presentation starts with the ethnological collection of Korean materials for American museums, which can be dated to roughly a half an hour after the signature of the first 1882 treaty between Chosôn and the United States. It passes through the first Korean exhibit at the United States National Museum (of the Smithsonian Institution) in 1889, and then to the relation of Korean participation in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to various anthropological transactions that also took place there. Its culmination is the first “Korea book” in American anthropology, Stewart Culin’s Korean Games of 1895—a book that centered and marginalized Korea (and East Asia) within the U.S. discipline in the very same stroke.
Tuesday, April 23 (12:00 p.m.)
Imagination of a Nomad
Insook Kim (UC Berkeley Daesan Writer-in-Residence)
Location: IEAS Numata Room
Summary: 프랑스의 미래학자 Jacques Attali는 그의 저서 “21세기 사전”에서 21세기를 도시 유목민의 시대로 규정한다. 도시 유목민이라는 개념 속에는 물질적인 풍요와 자유로운 정체성, 개방적이면서도 동시에 철저히 폐쇄적인 인간관계 등이 들어 있다. 그렇다면 한국의 21세기형 도시유목민들은 어떤 사람들일까. 그들은 자유로운가, 고독한가. 한국문학은 그들에게 어떤 관심을 갖고 있는가.
Note: This talk was given in Korean.
Thursday, April 18 (4:00 p.m.)
The Soybean Paste Girl: The Cultural and Gender Politics of Coffee Consumption in Contemporary South Korea
Jee-Eun Song (UC Berkeley)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: The barista profession gained its popularity in South Korea with the entrance of transnational coffee companies like Starbucks Coffee in 1999. Since then, the barista line of work has gained a particular meaning in South Korea as a highly trained and specialized profession. Based on ethnographic research and interviews with Starbucks baristas in Seoul in 2006, this talk addresses how South Koreans buy into the myth of Starbucks. I ask, how do baristas come to understand their work as something other than low paid flexible work? I explore the paradox of work in the consumer-oriented production-end of the service industry in neoliberal global economy when that work involves “coffee art.” I position the work of baristas in the larger context of economic restructuring post Asian financial crisis (1997-1999) in order to problematize the neoliberal logic of capitalism that foregrounds self-reliant discourses of the individual and the self, as opposed to ideas of social resources or welfare. The desire to self-manage and promote the self, as is the case with the baristas, is part of the larger phenomenon of the neoliberal economic reform led by the state in the post-economic crisis. This talk complicates our understandings of global products, and how neoliberal policies become implemented in everyday cultural practices.
Tuesday, April 16 (4:00 p.m.)
Picturing Innocence: Locating the Child in Korea, 1920-1934
Dafna Zur (Stanford University)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: The turn of the twentieth century brought with it an intense intellectual drive towards enlightenment in Korea, and one of the most significant targets of enlightenment was the child. The momentum toward reform and the gaze toward the future brought the child to the forefront of social discourse and made the child into a pliable image both textually and visually. Dr. Zur’s research examines a representative range of children’s magazines along the political spectrum in order to demonstrate the ways in which the image of the child became a contested site of ideological inscription. Her presentation illuminates points of continuity and rupture in the texts and illustration of children’s magazines written during the transition from late colonial to postliberation Korea.
Friday, April 12 (4:00 p.m.)
Censorial Dilemmas and Advertising Truths in South Korea of the ‘00s
Olga Fedorenko (New York University)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: This talk is about the dilemmas and effects of advertising censorship in South Korea of the 2000s. Historically, South Korean advertising has been subject to rigorous scrutiny, with various semi-government and non-government agencies concerning themselves with before- and after-the-fact advertising review. As liberal ideologies proliferated in South Korea, advertising censors--the staff of various review boards and public representatives called upon to rule on unprecedented cases--found themselves in the uncomfortable position of administering unfreedom in a time when freedom was a paramount value. This talk will draw on participant observation at a semi-government media censorship board and interviews with advertising censors to explore how they navigated the contradictory demands: to protect the unwary public by limiting advertisers’ freedom, on the one hand, and, on the other, to cultivate themselves as liberal, open-minded individuals committed to governing others through freedom. Overall, the speaker suggests that advertising censorship, though ostensibly limiting advertising discourses and curbing advertising abuses, in the end produced “smart” consumers, to use the censors’ parlance normative advertising consumers who, while open to be stirred by advertisements, did not expect an actual realization of advertising promises--thus granting the advertising industry a license to exaggerate and exploit emotions to ever greater degrees.
Friday, April 12 (12:00 p.m.)
Samsung vs Apple: Can a fast follower overtake a market leader?
Tony Michell (Korea Associates Business Consultancy Ltd.)
Location: IEAS Numata Room
Summary: The court battles between Samsung and Apple around the globe have focused attention on the “rise” of Samsung, and to a new kind of competition between market leaders. Tony Michell, author of Samsung Electronics and the struggle for leadership of the electronics industry (2010), will talk about the steps by which Samsung rose to its present heights, and clarify some issues about Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007, and branding positions vs Samsung. The talk will look forward to the future battles in convergence, and pose the question as to whether the future lies with Apple or with Samsung, the quintessential American company or the leading Asian electronics company?
Tuesday, April 9 (12:00 p.m.)
China’s Ancient History Expansionism and Korea’s Response
Chang-hee Nam (Inha University)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: This talk will cover Beijing’s newly raised claim that the ancient Korean kingdoms, Koguryo and Palhae, belonged to China. This history expansionism by China aims at generating an excuse for the country to occupy the northern part of North Korea in the event of an internal crisis in Pyongyang. Another reason is to amplify nationalistic pride by annexing dazzling jade civilizations outside the Great Wall border area in an effort to divert mounting public frustration over economic disparity and corruption in the country.
Bio: Chang-hee Nam (49) is Professor of the Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences, Inha University of the Republic of Korea. He has served as Vice Dean of Inha University Graduate School. Prior to joining Inha University in 2001, he was a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis (ROK MND think tank, KIDA: 1994-2000), working on Japanese security/foreign policy and the Northeast Asian international relations. He is currently serving as an advisor to the ROK Ministry of National Defense, ROK Army HQ, ROK Navy HQ, ROK Air Force HQ, and the Ministry of Unification and Ministry of Education. He is also a Senior Unification Advisory Group Member to the President.
Tuesday, April 2 (4:00 p.m.)
Women for Women: Gender Gap and the 2012 Presidential Election of Korea
Jiyoon Kim (Asan Institute for Policy Studies)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: The 18th presidential election of Korea in 2012 engendered numerous subjects to be discussed for electoral scholars. In particular, an incredible amount of attention was paid to the fact that a female president was elected in one of the world’s most traditional and conservative societies. Some political pundits and scholars noted the disproportionately high support for Park among female voters, through which they attempted to explain Park’s decisive victory. This talk examines the source of the female voters’ support for President Park Geun-hye in the 2012 presidential election. Conventionally, Korean female voters are known to be more conservative than their male counterparts. However, it is not yet clear whether the female support for Park stems from the “gender affinity effect” or a pre-existing gender gap. Using the Asan Institute’s Electoral Studies of 2012, this talk will explore which effect prevailed and contributed more heavily to Park’s electoral victory.
Wednesday, March 6 (4:00 p.m.)
Hanji Unfurled: One Journey into Korean Papermaking
Aimee Lee (Freelance Hanji Artist)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: With a history well over 1,500 years, Korean handmade paper, known as hanji, is familiar to Koreans but a mystery outside its home country. This lustrous paper that comes in a wide array of thickness, color, size, and translucency was once a coveted item inside and beyond Korean borders. Made by farmers during bitter cold winters, hanji was a noble marker of the literati that demanded paper for books, documents, calligraphy, and painting. Hanji also played a spiritual role as the ground for illuminated sutras, the body of temple decorations, and spirit of rituals where it was burned in hopes that its ashes would rise to the sky. Join Aimee Lee as she shares her experience of searching for a traditional Korean papermaking teacher as recounted in “Hanji Unfurled,” the first English-language book about hanji. Of the handful of American hanji researchers, she is the only one to have interacted with Koreans in their own language while simultaneously learning the craft. Her talk will be accompanied by images, videos, and samples of hanji and paper objects.
Wednesday, February 27 (12:00 p.m.)
Balancing, Bandwagoning, or Standing Alone?: China’s Rise and the Future of the Korean Peninsula
Chung-in Moon (Yonsei University)
Location: 223 Moses Hall
Summary: What is South Korea’s perception of China’s rise? How has China’s rise influenced its interactions with the two Koreas as well as the ROK-US alliance? What is South Korea’s most ideal strategic choice? Balancing, bandwagoning, standing alone, or shaping a new regional order? What implications might these options have on the future of Korean peninsula?
Bio: Chung-in Moon is a professor of political science at Yonsei University and Editor-in-Chief of Global Asia, a quarterly magazine in English. He is also Director of the Kim Dae-jung Presidential Library and Museum. He served as Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative, a cabinet-level post, and Ambassador for International Security Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Republic of Korea. He has published over 45 books and 250 articles in edited volumes and such scholarly journals. His recent publications include What Does Japan Now Think? (in Korean, 2013), The Sunshine Policy-In Defense of Engagement as a Path to Peace in Korea (2012), Exploring the Future of China (in Korean 2010 and Chinese in 2012), The United States and Northeast Asia: Debates, Issues, and New Order (with John Ikenberry 2008), and War and Peace in East Asia (2006). He attended the 1st and 2nd Pyongyang Korean summit as a special delegate. He is the recipient of Public Policy Scholar Award (the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C.), the Lixian Scholar Award (Beijing University), and the Pacific Leadership Fellowship (UCSD). He served as president of the Korea Peace Research Association and Vice President of the International Studies Association (ISA) of North America. He is a member of ASEAN Regional Forum-Eminent and Expert Persons (ARF-EEPs) representing South Korea and served as co-chair of the first and second AFR-EEPs meetings in June 2006 and Feb. 2007.
Tuesday, February 19 (4:00 p.m.)
Introducing Hearts of Pine: Songs in the Lives of Three Korean Survivors of the Japanese 'Comfort Women'
Josh Pilzer (University of Toronto)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: In this presentation, ethnomusicologist Josh Pilzer introduces the book that has resulted from his ten-year project on the musical lives of South Korean survivors of the ‘comfort women’ system. During the long era of public secrecy about Japanese military sexual slavery, Korean survivors made use of veiled expressive forms such as songs to reckon with their experiences and forge social selves without exposing their already opaquely public secrets. In the era of the “comfort women grandmothers” protest movement, which began in the early 1990s, the women became star witnesses and super-symbols of South Korea’s colonial victimization at the hands of Japan; and the new normative constraints of this role compelled the women to continue to express taboo sentiments and continue the work of self-making behind the veils of song, often in the most public of places. The women’s songs are thus simultaneously records of traumatic experiences; transcripts of struggles to overcome traumatic memory and achieve different kinds of cultural membership; performances of traumatic experience for an expectant public; and works of art that stretch beyond the horizons of traumatic experience and even those of Korean cultural identity.
Friday, February 15 (4:00 p.m.)
Seeking Asylum, Finding God: Religion and Moral Economy of Migrants’ Illegality
Jae-Eun Kim (Stanford University)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: The literature on immigration and religion has recently focused on how religion provides an alternative imaginary geography of belonging beyond the nation-state. Such works have analyzed how membership in a faith community provides illegal migrants with a path to de facto incorporation into the “local” society or a sense of belonging to a “transnational” community of faith, despite their de jure exclusion from the “national” citizenry in their state of residence. This talk will discuss the hitherto underexplored question, namely, how asylum procedures in contemporary immigration states prompt a certain group of migrants to take on a particular religious identity in pursuit of legal status. Drawing on ongoing research on the migration careers, legalization strategies, and conversion patterns of ethnic Korean migrants from China to the United States, the speaker shows that asylum-seeking is a contingent, temporally unfolding, and essentially an interactive process, guided not by long-term planning, but by everyday pragmatism, shifting state policies, and various middlemen informing migrants’ perception of these policies. Kim also shows how religious institutions -- which have developed distinctive understandings of the nation, the community of faith, and divine justice -- get involved in, respond to, channel, and give meanings to this particular legalization strategy, and how the newly acquired religious identity reshapes these migrants’ “cartography of belonging,” through which they make sense of their place in the local society, in the states of origin and residence, and in the transnational community of faith.
Wednesday, February 6 (4:00 p.m.)
Wither in Hong Sangsoo (Talk), ‘Weather in Hong Sangsoo’ (Short Film, Color, 21 Min.)
Kyung Hyun Kim (UC Irvine)
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Summary: The speaker will read from a story entitled “Wither in Hong Sangsoo” about an imaginary dialogue that takes place between the narrator, a retired film critic, and Hong Sangsoo, an amnesiac filmmaker. It is set in 2022. The story attempts to braid together a few concerns in the works of Hong Sangsoo that encompass the possibility of nondualistic relations: between authenticity and falsity, between humility and vanity, and between cultivation and resolute action. Preceding the reading is a 21-minute video essay called “Weather in Hong Sangsoo.” “Weather in Hong Sangsoo” is a compilation film that collages footage from films Hong has thus far directed in a career that spans over 15 years—one that began with his debut film, The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (1996), and continues most recently with In Another Country (2012). The video essay foregrounds cryptic themes found in Hong Sangsoo’s films, such as weather, trees, and unseen, and argues that they are constant forces of passion, renewal, and even transmigration in Hong’s work. Kyung Hyun Kim is Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures and Director of Critical Theory Emphasis at UC Irvine. He is also the author of “The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema” [Duke University Press, 2004] “Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era” [Duke University Press, 2011].
Thursday, January 31 (4:00 p.m.)
Flashpoint in Korea: Proxies, Rivals, and the Origins of the Korean War
Location: IEAS Conference Room
Speakers:
Sheila Miyoshi Jager (Oberlin College)
Allan Millett (New Orleans University)
Michael Devine (Truman Presidential Library)